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· Sep 22

[Vídeo] La evolución de la IA: adoptando la agencia

Hola comunidad,

Disfrutad del nuevo vídeo en el YouTube de InterSystems Developers:

La evolución de la IA: adoptando la agencia @ Ready 2025

Este vídeo explora la evolución y el futuro de la IA en el ámbito sanitario, siguiendo el cambio desde el aprendizaje automático tradicional hacia nuevos enfoques centrados en la agencia y la IA generativa. Presenta trabajos innovadores en modelado predictivo usando datos no clínicos, como marcas de tiempo de interacciones sanitarias y patrones de compra en supermercados, para detectar signos tempranos de enfermedades, incluido el cáncer de ovario. También aborda el uso de datos de comportamiento recogidos a través de laboratorios vivos para apoyar el diagnóstico de afecciones como el Parkinson. El objetivo general es desarrollar una "IA lista para el paciente" que cubra lagunas en la observabilidad y la atención, reduzca la sobrecarga de los profesionales sanitarios y promueva una transformación significativa en la prestación digital de la atención médica.

Ponente:
🗣 Aldo Faisal, Profesor de IA y Neurociencia, School of Convergence Science in Human & Artificial Intelligence

¿Os preguntáis qué más es posible? Ved el vídeo y suscribíos para más ejemplos.

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· Sep 22

The Role of Custom Poly Mailers in Modern E-commerce Packaging

In the fast-paced online shopping continuum, companies remain under constant pressure to expedite shipments to their final destinations and do so in an efficient manner that contributes to a positive brand image. Therein lies the rise of Custom Poly Mailers wholesale as a solution that changes the game. Unlike traditional packaging, which can be bulky or expensive, poly mailers are very lightweight, flexible, and thus customizable. In a nutshell, e-commerce brands use poly mailers both as a means of secure shipping avenue and as one of the least expensive ways for them to promote their own brand. Custom Poly Mailers provide online businesses with an opportunity to combine function with promotion, whether that is through funky colors, logos, or Green materials.

 

Why Are Custom Poly Mailers Important in E-Commerce?

A Boost to Branding with Custom Poly Mailers

Branding is no longer confined to just products-it is anything a customer experiences regarding a business. Custom Poly Mailers enable companies to turn a simple shipping bag into a walking advertisement. A branded poly mailer or custom logo mailer expedites in imprinting the image of the company onto the buyers. Unlike conventional packaging, these mailers speak professionalism and precision to detail, engendering customer loyalty and brand reinforcement at each delivery.

Lightweight Packaging to Reduce Shipping Costs

Shipping costs are the major concern for any e-commerce business. Because of the lightweight yet sturdy nature of Custom Poly Mailers, they offer a considerable reduction in postage cost vis-à-vis cardboard boxes that weigh much more. That cost reduction means so much for small businesses and startups needing inexpensive shipping options while still ensuring product safety. These very qualities of lightness also make poly mailers preferred for bulk shipments and overseas shipments.

Improving the Customer Experience

An unboxing experience has become KEY in modern retail. Customers now want packaging that feels personal, considerate, and aligned with the image of the brand. Custom Poly-Mailers make that experience special with designs and colors that are sure to delight the customer as they open their package. Whether it is apparel, books, or accessories, there is value added to the purchase when it is received in customized packaging and thus encourages repeat sales.

 

The Top-Notch Features of Custom Poly Mailers for the Modern Packaging Industry

Durable Protection of Products

The greatest benefit of Custom Poly Mailers is their durability. They are water-resistant, tear-proof, and strong enough to withstand shipping with non-fragile items. Compared to standard envelopes or paper bags, poly mailers are good for ensuring that products like clothes, small electronics, or accessories reach their destination intact. From a business perspective, it reduces the liability of having to deal with returns due to damaged merchandise.

Eco-Friendly Solution for Sustainable Businesses

Sustainability is a consumer priority. Many businesses now go for ecological poly mailers, which are made from either recycled or biodegradable materials. Offering sustainable packaging helps companies establish their ecological credentials and attract an environmentally conscious clientele. Giving green options serves as proof of about their responsibility and is good for their branding in an e-commerce market.

Versatility and Design Flexibility

Another reason why Custom Poly Mailers have gained their huge popularity is for their very own flexibility design. These can be tailored by businesses in different shapes, colors, and prints according to their need. If you have a fashion line, you will choose some good-looking shipping bags, whereas if you are a bookstore, your choices would be more on minimal designs. Poly mailers are almost unlimited in design. Logos, messages for any season, and promotional designs can all go onto them, making them useful for nearly any marketing campaign.

Cheap and Scalable Packaging

Whatever the stage in life-the new setup or the growing one-the cost does matter. Custom Poly Mailers are the most reasonably priced packaging materials available today, which might be purchased in bulk once the demand upgrades. Wholesale poly mailers are just the solution to the problem that online retailers face; that is, to maintain a constant supply without breaking the bank. This scalability thus allows the business to maintain enough stock with every unit price getting lower, and ultimately, the profitability of that business.

 

How Do Custom Poly Mailers Compare to Other Packaging Options?

Poly Mailers vs. Cardboard Boxes

Cardboard boxes have always been the common choice for shipping. For light non-breakable goods, however, Custom Poly Mailers prove to be a wiser choice. They require less space, are cheaper to ship, and are easier to cargo. Thus, boxes for fragile goods are still to go, but the cost-effectiveness and convenience offered by poly mailers are the way to go.

Poly Mailers v Bubble Mailers

Bubble mailers rank among the most commonly used options alongside poly mailers for fairly fragile items. The disadvantage is that bubble mailers tend, however, to be more bulky and costly than poly mailers. For clothing items or books and accessories, Custom Poly Mailers are enough and more cost-effective. Bubble mailers provide cushioning for delicate items, and poly mailers provide protection to the goods without adding to their bulk.

Poly Mailers v Kraft Packaging

Kraft packaging appeals to the environmentally conscious, being biodegradable, but its durability is lesser than that offered by poly mailers. With Custom Poly Mailers, one need not really wrestle with issues of branding against protection. In any situation, poly mailers offer much better compromise toward cost, strength, and customization as compared to kraft bags.

 

Choosing the Most Fitting Custom Poly Mailer for Your Business

Size and Thickness Options

Choosing the right, custom poly mailer size and thickness assures that the products reach their destination securely. Thin mailers are perfect for light apparel, and thicker ones are equally good for books, small electronics, or accessories. Businesses need to look at the product categories that they have before settling on the mailers to avoid future shipping problems.

Print and Logo Options

Arguably one of the most powerful advantages of Custom Poly Mailers is the printing of brilliant, unique brand elements. From logos and taglines to promotional messages, businesses must customize their mailers to give their brand great exposure. Custom printing ends up creating a branding experience that is uniform across packaging, marketing, and customer interaction.

Bulk and Wholesale Orders

Ordering Custom Poly Mailers in bulk is a good thing to save money and keep the packaging always available. Wholesale orders might be helpful for businesses where there is seasonality or if the business is growing fast. The whole point about bulk packaging is to save money and cut out last-minute shortages during peak sell times.

 

Conclusion – Shaping the Future of E-commerce with Custom Poly Mailers

Custom poly mailers have emerged as a modern e-commerce packaging option. With their ability to strike a balance between price and strength and serve as a platform for promotion while remaining environmentally friendly, these mailers address the most fundamental needs of both customers and business: cheaper shipping and enhanced unboxing experience. For online retailers looking to gain a competitive advantage, the purchase of custom poly mailers is more of a growth strategy than a packaging decision.

 

FAQ's

What are custom poly mailers?

Custom Poly Mailers are lightweight, sturdy, centerfold shipping bags used mostly by e-commerce businesses. They assure secure delivery of the product and act as advertising for the brand with their customizable designs.

Are poly mailers eco-friendly?

The environmentally sustainable poly mailers are available in compostable or recycled forms.

Why are poly mailers more suitable for e-commerce than boxes?

Poly mailers are cheap, lightweight, and good for shipping any non-fragile item. These features all contribute to lower shipping charges.

Can companies print logos on poly mailers?

Yes, Custom Poly Mailers with logo printing can be used by companies to promote their brand and add a professional touch.

Are poly mailers good for product protection?

They are waterproof, tear-resistant, and strong enough to protect most non-fragile products from damage during transit.

What kind of product can best use poly mailers?

Clothing, books, accessories, and other light-weight items are great candidates for Custom Poly Mailers.

How do poly mailers improve the unboxing experience?

They make a professional and branded packaging experience that makes customers feel valued and fosters loyalty.

Can poly mailers be bought in wholesale quantities?

Yes, buying poly mailers at wholesale or bulk quantities is common among e-commerce businesses in order to save cost and maintain stock availability.

Are custom poly mailers affordable for startups?

Yes, they are one of the most affordable packaging solutions, which makes them very suitable for startups and small businesses.

What makes custom poly mailers an ideal choice for e-commerce packaging?

They combine cost-effectiveness with durability, sustainability, and branding, which make them one of the finest means of packaging available for online retailers.

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Article
· Sep 21 5m read

Share volumes across pods and zones on AKS

Background

For a variety of reasons, users may wish to mount a persistent volume on two or more pods spanning multiple availability zones. One such use case is to make data stored outside of IRIS available to both mirror members in case of failover.

Unfortunately the built-in storage classes in most Kubernetes implementations (whether cloud or on-prem) do not provide this capability:

  • Does not support access mode "ReadWriteMany"
  • Does not support being mounted on more than one pod at a time
  • Does not support access across availability zones

However, some Kubernetes add-ons (both provider and third-party) do provide this capability. The one we'll be looking at in this article is Azure Blob Store.

Overview

In this article we will:

  • Create a Kubernetes cluster on AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service)
  • Use Azure Blob Store to create a persistent volume of type ReadWriteMany
  • Use IKO to deploy an IRIS failover mirror spanning two availability zones
  • Mount the persistent volume on both mirror members
  • Demonstrate that both mirror members have read/write access to the volume

Steps

The following steps were all carried out using Azure Cloud Shell. Please note that InterSystems is not responsible for any costs incurred in the following examples.

We will be using region "eastus" and availability zones "eastus-2" and "eastus-3".

Create Resource Group

az group create \
   --name samplerg \
   --location eastus

Create Service Principal

We extract the App Id and Client Secret for the next call:

SP=$(az ad sp create-for-rbac -o tsv)
APP_ID="$(echo $SP | cut -d' ' -f1)"
CLIENT_SECRET="$(echo $SP | cut -d' ' -f3)"

Create Kubernetes Cluster

az aks create \
   --resource-group samplerg \
   --name sample \
   --node-count 6 \
   --zones 2 3 \
   --generate-ssh-key \
   --service-principal $APP_ID \
   --client-secret $CLIENT_SECRET \
   --kubernetes-version 1.33.2 \
   --enable-blob-drive

Create a PersistentVolumeClaim

Add the following to a file named azure-blob-pvc.yaml:

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: azure-blob-storage
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteMany
  storageClassName: azureblob-nfs-premium
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 5Gi

Now create the persistent volume claim:

kubectl apply -f azure-blob-pvc.yaml

Install IKO

Install and run IKO:

helm install sample iris_operator_amd-3.8.42.100/chart/iris-operator

See IKO documentation for additional information on how to download and configure IKO.

Create an IrisCluster

Add the following to a file named iris-azureblob-demo.yaml:

apiVersion: intersystems.com/v1alpha1
kind: IrisCluster
metadata:
  name: sample
spec:
  storageClassName: iris-ssd-storageclass
  licenseKeySecret:
    name: iris-key-secret
  imagePullSecrets:
    - name: dockerhub-secret
  volumes:
  - name: nfs-volume
    persistentVolumeClaim:
      claimName: azure-blob-pvc
  topology:
    data:
      image: containers.intersystems.com/intersystems/iris:2025.2
      preferredZones: ["eastus-2","eastus-3"]
      mirrored: true
      volumeMounts:
      - name: nfs-volume
        mountPath: "/mnt/nfs"

Notes:

  • The mirror spans both availability zones in our cluster
  • See IKO documentation for information on how to configure an IrisCluster

Now create the IrisCluster:

kubectl apply -f iris-azureblob-demo.yaml

Soon after that you should see the IrisCluster is up and running:

$ kubectl get pod,pv,pvc
NAME                 READY  STATUS   RESTARTS  AGE
pod/sample-data-0-0  1/1    Running  0         9m34s
pod/sample-data-0-1  1/1    Running  0         91s
NAME              CAPACITY  ACCESS MODES  STATUS   CLAIM                      STORAGECLASS
pvc-bbdb986fba54   5Gi       RWX           Bound    azure-blob-pvc             azureblob-nfs-premium
pvc-9f5cce1010a3   4Gi       RWO           Bound    iris-data-sample-data-0-0  iris-ssd-storageclass
pvc-5e27165fbe5b   4Gi       RWO           Bound    iris-data-sample-data-0-1  iris-ssd-storageclass
NAME                      STATUS  VOLUME            CAPACITY  ACCESS MODES  STORAGECLASS            
azure-blob-pvc             Bound   pvc-bbdb986fba54  5Gi       RWX           azureblob-nfs-premium
iris-data-sample-data-0-0  Bound   pvc-9f5cce1010a3  4Gi       RWO           iris-ssd-storageclass
iris-data-sample-data-0-1  Bound   pvc-5e27165fbe5b  4Gi       RWO           iris-ssd-storageclass

We can also (by joining the output of "kubectl get pod" with "kubectl get node") see that the mirror members reside in different availability zones:

sample-data-0-0 aks-nodepool1-10664034-vmss000001 eastus-2
sample-data-0-1 aks-nodepool1-10664034-vmss000002 eastus-3

Test the shared volume

We can create files on the shared volume on each pod:

kubectl exec sample-data-0-0 -- touch /mnt/nfs/primary.txt
kubectl exec sample-data-0-1 -- touch /mnt/nfs/backup.txt

And then observe that files are visible from both pods:

$ kubectl exec sample-data-0-0 -- ls /mnt/nfs
primary.txt
backup.txt
$ kubectl exec sample-data-0-1 -- ls /mnt/nfs
primary.txt
backup.txt

Cleanup

Delete IrisCluster deployment

kubectl delete -f iris-azureblob-demo.yaml --ignore-not-found
helm uninstall sample --ignore-not-found

Delete Persistent Volumes

kubectl delete azure-blob-pvc iris-data-sample-data-0-0 iris-data-sample-data-0-1 --ignore-not-found

Note that deleting PersistentVolumeClaim triggers deletion of the corresponding PersistentVolume.

Delete Kubernetes Cluster

az aks delete --resource-group samplerg --name sample --yes

Delete Resource Group

az group delete --name samplerg --no-wait --yes

Conclusion

We demonstrated how Azure Blob Store can be used to mount read/write volumes on pods residing in different availability zones.  Several other solutions are available both for AKS and for other cloud providers.  As you can see, their configuration can be highly esoteric and vendor-specific, but once working can be reliable and effective.

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Article
· Sep 20 2m read

Snapshot DB free - Strategies

These are the strategic plans of my example for the External Languages Contest 2025

  • Top of all: Speed
    • Anything that is running in endless loops doesn't help
    • So the steps happen where the environment is best suited for
    • Communications reduce speed. Less Ping-Pong od messages
    • Just exchange what can't be avoided
  • No artificial constructs. Keep it compact and simple to follow,

Python

I'm using the Native API for Python to keep it independent of IRIS instances
The interactive entered connection parameters allow a wide range of IRIS instances
Running it in a Docker container makes me independent of locally installed Python.

Once connected, a slave class is triggered in IRIS to prepare the data by columns.
The fetched 4 columns fill a DataSet and generate the bar chart.
The result is delivered outside the Docker container. 

IRIS#1

I tried to create a class that is independent of the IRIS version.
Int namespace %SYS runs 1 embedded SQL query, resulting in a single string.
The string is splitted into 4 columns, ready for the Python Dataset.
Synchronization is provided by the standard ClassMethod call. 

IRIS#2

Display of the results is implemented a very simple CSP page using the
results deposited outside the container. The biggest challenge was to force
the browser to ignore its actual cached graphic images.
The trick: Instead of just a source request for tab.jpg  I used tab.jpg?#($h)#
the makes no logical sense, but creates a different signature in the browser cache
So what you see is really the last image generated and in synch with the displayed data

Compact code

As both parts in IRIS result in only 4 ClassMethods I decided to pack them together
in a single resulting class that made coding and maintenance very easy.
Similar in Python:
The code is almost linear and easy to follow. Exception: Mimic of ZWRITE for testing

Summary

The exercise could have been composed in IRIS only with or without embedded Python
Though the challenge was to use external code to use connections to IRIS.

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